Alex and the Amazing Time Machine

by Rich Cohen, Kelly Murphy (Illustrator)

From bestselling author Rich Cohen and award-winning illustrator Kelly Murphy comes a middle grade action-adventure novel, Alex and the Amazing Time Machine.

Alex Trumble is a pretty ordinary kid―except for the fact that his IQ borders on genius, and he loves to read books on vortexes and time travel. But when two angry hit men kidnap his big brother Steven, Alex's life changes fast. Inventing a time machine (using an iPod, mirrors, duct tape, and a laser pointer) is only half the battle. With the help of the time-bending Dingus, Alex and his best friend Todd must travel back in time to collect clues, outwit the bad guys, and race against the clock to save his family from total oblivion.

Genres: Middle Grade, Kids

176 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2012

About the author

RICH COHEN is the author of Sweet and Low (FSG, 2006), Tough Jews, The Avengers, The Record Men, and the memoir Lake Effect. His work has appeared in many major publications, and he is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone. He lives with his family in Connecticut.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Coh...

Reviews

[Lisa Calvert]

Long rambling story. Hard to follow...had to wait too long for something interesting to happen! Meh.

[Budgielifestyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book as a fifth grader. It had a cool concept and it really interested me as a kid.

[Cesar-Polito-Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story starts when a boy named Alex, has dreams about time traveling with his friend Todd using his own device that he created. A scientist named Dr. Shaprut tries to build a time travel machine, and told Alex that there’s a book that has secrets on how to time travel. Alex goes to the library and finds a copy of the book but it’s missing the pages where it contains the secrets. Two men named Carl and Little Davy are on the loose and tried to get answers from Alex about the “Dingus”. Alex doesn’t know anything about it but later on, he finds a page that contains the secrets of time traveling. Weeks later Alex and his family go to Camp and a day later the family was informed that Alex’s brother, Steven, got kidnapped. When Alex came back to school from camp, he tells Todd about the disaster. The guys acted fast as they went home and build the time machine that Alex had design on a piece paper. They got four mirrors, a laser pointer, duct tape, glue, electrical wire, a tape measure, an Ipod and a powerful device, whit all this they were now able to time travel. After that Alex went into the past, 42 days back when his family was ready to go on the trip to camp. He live through everything that happened before but Alex had to make sure to be on time before the two men kidnap Steven. Alex makes it on time but the two men tried to get rid of the boys sending them to a different universe. But Todd comes in and saves Alex, and Steven by hitting Carl and Little Davy with a baseball bat. In the end Steven got rescued making Alex and Todd send Little Davy and Carl at the beginning of time. Alex and Todd activated the time machine and went to their present time. A year later the guys go the museum and saw the new exhibit called “The struggle of Early Man” which had Carl and little Davy frozen.

[Jonathan H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is for middle-grade readers. Alex Trumble is a pretty smart kid who happens to love the concept of time travel. Then two mysterious thugs show up, and they’re after the secret to time travel. When they kidnap his older brother and vanish, it’s up to Alex to invent a time machine and go back in time to piece together the clues and rescue his brother. This middle-grade book has lots of little hints dropped early in the book that only make sense later, and although the time machine explanation is rather silly (mirrors don’t work like that!), it’s still a fun read overall. One thing that bothered me, though, was that there were some inconsistencies in one scene that gets experienced twice (due to time travel)—some of the things don’t happen in the same order. I’m okay with hand-waving when it comes to how the time travel works, but you gotta keep your timelines straight.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great. I recognized some of the more current theories for time travel and some real physics wrapped up in a compelling story that kids who like science will like.
With an 850 Lex. It may be beyond the reach of some readers, but look for an audio version to stretch the accessibility.
I can think of quite a few kids in my elementary school who will like this book.
I especially like how Rich Cohen put himself into the story.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Nice little sci-fi read for grade fours about a precocious kid who invents a time machine (using an iPod, mirrors, duct tape, and a laser pointer) when his brother is kidnapped by two angry hit men from the future.

[Marge Keller · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started reading it because I liked the summary on the back of the book. I had a hard time getting into it. So I gave up on it. Could go back to it if necessary but wanted to spend my time on something else.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5)
Alex is a 5th grade genius obsessed with time travel. He becomes even more obsessed when his brother Steven got kidnapped while on a family vacation. Will time be able to heal Alex's wounds?

[Ratforcekids]

A kidnapped big brother and a time machine invented by a very clever new hero will take you on a rollicking ride through this awesome story. Hilarious at times, I think you'll like this book!

[Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Confusing. So confusing and staccato that I actually stopped reading, because it failed completely to engage me.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Donnie Darko meets Back to the Future.

[Josh Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good start with an interesting plot that young readers will enjoy. However, it seemed like the plot never took off. The ending came too quickly and did not have a lot of action as expected.

[Kate McCartney · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting premise for a middle grade book, but it never fully takes off.

[Rafi Weltmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book

I loved this book it had adventures, and cliff hanging chapters that made you always want to enjoy reading it.